History of Rio Dell
Humboldt County, California
The history of the City of Rio Dell is unique. In the 1870's when Lorenzo Painter settled in what is now known as Rio Dell. He started a friendly farming community which he named Eagle Prairie. Over the years three separate small community areas evolved that were popularly named Wildwood (which is now downtown Rio Dell, Belleview (now a major area and avenue northwest of the center of town) and Eagle Prairie (now the Pacific Avenue area west of the center of town). The City was incorporated in 1965 and the three areas combined into the single City of Rio Dell.
The neighboring town of Scotia was originally named Forestville and then renamed as Scotia because the residents liked the ring of the name. Whether Forestville or Scotia, it has always been a Company owned mill town. Neighboring Rio Dell traditionally supplied housing and services for persons eemployed by the lumber mill and its activities. Rio Dell and Scotia are joined by a bridge built in 1940 which now has the distinction of being named as the Shortest Highway in the State of California or State Highway 273 .
This bridge is the third bridge to span the Eel River in Rio Dell history. Prior bridges had proven inadequate for ever increasing traffic and high winter flooding of the Eel River.
Rio Dell and Scotia share a colorful and somewhat tawdry history not unique in the western USA in the 19th and early 20th Century. Gambling, bootlegging, prostitution and other businesses of questionable virtue flourished including some under the management of able madames named Esther, Landa, Bertah, Vesa and Florence. In 1925 Rio Dell had great aspirations for its future because bootleggers made high profits and wanted to invest them in municipal progress. In the 1920's the City of Scotia had a saloon named the Green Goose which operated with questionable virtue and providing other services on the side to eager mill workers. Later, the Green Goose became a commercial laundry.
With the advent in the 20th Century of popular automotive travel north and south between San Francisco and Oregon, US Highway 101 replaced primitive roads. The new Highway passed through the center of town as Wildwood Avenue. A brief period of municipal prosperity resulted and merchandising flourished. In 1976 construction of a freeway by-pass fortunately reduced traffic congestion in town, but unfortunately also reduced the volume of business in town today.
Sequoia Semperviren is the species name of the Coastal Redwood tree family that has immortalized both Rio Dell and neighboring Scotia. Cones of this precious tree release tiny redwood seeds each fall. These seeds seek freshly disturbed ground or fresh mineral soil to germinate the next spring. A sturdy tree, the redwood generates prolifically from stumps and root shoots.
Rio Dell is famous for its fossil beds across the Eel River in an area known as the Scotia Bluffs. Fossils preserved in sandstone age from one million years to fifty million years since the entire area was a prehistoric branch of the Pacific Ocean. The fossils found in the area include razor clams, sand dollars, crabs, starfish and other shallow water sea life. Occasionally, other fossils are found including agetized whale bone. The fossils are found in out cropping of shale, sandstone, and mudstone.
